starbursts in my eyes
by carzla
Summary: [One Shot - S08E23 Spoilers] ['as I fall' series] It started out as a normal night for Charlie. Until the stars started falling. Dean wasn't returning her calls, and on the roadside, she meets a person in a trench coat whom she's never met but knows who he is all the same.


_**starbursts in my eyes**_

_Disclaimer:_

_Supernatural belongs to The CW Network. This story contains spoilers for the Season 8 finale, "Sacrifice"; feel free to hit the back button if you do not wish to be spoiled. I only own this plot idea. Thank you._

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**Full Summary:**

**[One Shot – Spoilers for S08E23 | part 2 of 'as I fall' series] It started out as a normal night for Charlie Bradbury. Until what seemed like all the stars in the universe started falling. Dean wasn't returning her calls, and on the roadside, she meets a person in a tan trench coat whom she's never met before but knows who he is all the same.**

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It was a normal night for one Charlie Bradbury. She was home, doing what she did best (if not entirely legal all the time, but well, a girl's gotta do what she's gotta do) and none of the things that went bump in the night appeared to be out and about. In fact, everything seemed perfectly peaceful and all was right with the world.

Then, from her window, the stars started to fall.

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When she'd last met Dean and Sam, she'd told them about finding and reading Carver Edlund's "Supernatural" series. After learning about the new things that had happened to the boys that weren't recorded in those books, and after the whole thing with the djinn, she'd begun to dig even deeper. By the end of the night, she'd found an encrypted online database, which she had promptly hacked into, with copies of chapters that had never been seen in the published books.

She had gotten to the rest of the Winchesters' history, at least up until the point where the Apocalypse (the actual, freaking _Apocalypse_) had been adverted. Clearly more had happened afterwards, since Sam was definitely _not _in Lucifer's Cage, and the last available chapter was dated about three years back.

So, from Anna's descriptions in one of the chapters, Charlie knew how an angel falling from Heaven would appear to the human eye. Like a star falling from the sky as their grace burnt out and detached from them. And from the meteor shower she was now witnessing, something, some _instinct_ that she probably picked up from hanging around Dean and Sam told her that all was _not good._ Because if she was witnessing falling angels right now, then many, _many _of them were falling from Heaven… and she didn't believe for a second that it was by choice.

Needless to say, she was sure that Sam and Dean were in the thick of it all.

She called Dean at once, but it went straight to voicemail without Dean even picking it up.

"Dean, it's Charlie and I'm looking at this… meteor shower, and okay it's gorgeous and all that but… Tell me that it's just a freak shower and not, y'know… _actually falling angels?_"

Charlie sat by her window the whole night, waiting restlessly for Dean's return call and watching as more streaks of light lit up the dark sky even as other streaks faded in a continuous lightshow. And as night gave way to dawn, to the slow sunrise that bleached out the dark of the night sky to leave behind an overcast one instead, she was no longer able to see the falling stars, and there was still no word from Dean.

Worried, but telling herself that Dean probably had had no time to check his phone if he and Sam had indeed been involved in that meteor rain, and that both of them were okay because they'd survived the damn Apocalypse (and she had to keep repeating that like a mantra), Charlie packed up the things that she needed into her backpack and prepared for the drive to the Men of Letters' headquarters. Just before she left, she made another call to Dean that headed straight to voicemail yet again.

"Dean, I'm heading to your HQ now. Please be there and be safe, okay? Your Queen needs her best handmaiden. Don't disappoint her."

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About halfway through her drive, Charlie caught sight of a flash of tan trench coat and mussed, black hair on the side of the near-empty highway. Something made her stop her car and approach the man who was standing so still with his head tilted skywards that he could've made a very convincing statue.

As she drew near him, his head slowly lowered and turned towards her. She was caught in the gaze of piercing blue eyes, and suddenly, it all clicked. She knew who she was looking at.

Even though Edlund's descriptions had _nothing_ on actually seeing Castiel's eyes.

"Castiel? Um, you're Castiel, aren't you?"

The angel blinked slowly as he regarded her with a slight head-tilt (characteristic of the angel, she remembered). Though his eyes were the bluest eyes she'd ever seen, they seemed too blank, too dead and so, _so _lost. Charlie was once again sharply reminded of why she was heading out to find Sam and Dean, and looking at Castiel, she just knew that the meteor shower last night was indeed caused by falling angels.

"Do I know you?" he asked, voice deep and rough like gravel. Just like how the books described.

"I don't think we've met. But I know Dean and Sam, after helping them with the Leviathans and then a couple of cases a while back… and I found and read the "Supernatural" series, including a whole bunch of unpublished chapters from this encrypted online database that I found and…" She realized that she was rambling and quickly cut to introducing herself, "You can call me Charlie."

"It is nice to meet you, Charlie."

Charlie wondered if she should ask what Castiel was doing on the side of the highway, but decided against it. Instead, she said, "I was on my way to find the boys. Do you… want a ride?"

"You know where they are?"

Castiel's voice took on a hopeful tone, and even his eyes seemed to light up a little. It made Charlie feel bad for not being a bearer of good news.

"Not exactly. I called Dean when I saw the meteor shower last night and didn't have a good feeling about it. But he didn't pick up, nor has he contacted me since. I was thinking to check out their HQ."

Castiel seemed to deflate at that. "That sounds… logical. I will join you. Thank you for your offer."

"Okay then. Hop on."

And that was how one Charlie Bradbury ended up with an angel (a fallen angel now?) riding shotgun in her car.

She'd had her own share of supernatural experiences since meeting the Winchesters. But somehow, with the quiet, almost forlorn form of Castiel sitting next to her as they drove towards the HQ, Charlie had to say that this was probably the most surreal one of them all.

Not to mention awkward.

Charlie thought she knew quite a bit about Castiel after reading Edlund's unpublished chapters. Castiel had raised Dean from Perdition, had rebelled against the entire Heavenly Host because of Dean and had died for Dean. Twice. For all that was written about how angels did not feel emotions in the same way that humans did, Charlie had privately felt that it wasn't entirely true. Most especially when it came to Castiel.

(She also didn't think it was the shipper in her talking.)

But reading about the angel was not the same as actually _meeting_ the angel, and she wasn't sure how to break the awkward silence surrounding them. She didn't think many of the topics that she usually talked about would be known to Castiel, who'd barely gotten any of the references that Dean commonly dropped.

So the journey passed in silence. At least, until she heard a loud growling, gurgling sound that most definitely did not come from her stomach. It was also her confirmation that Castiel was now fully human.

"Castiel? Have you eaten?"

"No, I… did not think to consider the needs of this… of my human body…"

The way Castiel sounded and paused before acknowledging that the body of his vessel was now truly his own made Charlie's heart go out to him. It was as if it was finally starting to register for Castiel that he was no longer an angel, and that he had actual human bodily needs to consider. Charlie was sure that in the aftermath of his own Fall and witnessing his brethren's descent the entire night, Castiel had forgotten about basic human requirements because he'd never needed to be concerned about them before. Not even during his short stint as a falling angel during the lead up to the averted Apocalypse.

"Okay then, we'll stop at the next gas station and get you something to eat and drink. Can't have you collapsing even before we find Sam and Dean."

"…thank you, Charlie."

A pit stop to grab food and drink for both of them later, they continued on their way with Castiel now devouring a large sandwich in between gulps of water. The man was famished and possibly dying of thirst. Charlie was glad she had the foresight to buy more than what was normal to eat and drink for Castiel. She wasn't sure if Castiel's hunger and thirst would just be due to the night that he hadn't eaten, or if his vessel-turned-body's needs from all the time that he'd spent in it would suddenly catch up. She'd hoped it wasn't the latter, and she didn't think it was _completely_ the latter, because then Castiel would need a whole lot more food than what he was currently consuming.

It was close to evening by the time she pulled up in front of the bunker. The sight of the Impala parked somewhat haphazardly nearby made her breathe out a sigh of relief. Dean and Sam were in the bunker then. That was good. She got out of her car along with Castiel, and after locking it, they headed towards the entrance with Castiel trailing behind her with the air of a lost puppy.

She knocked loudly on the door. "Hey, Dean? Sam? I hope you got my message! Open up!"

A few moments later, the door to the bunker swung open and Dean came into view. His face looked tired and there were dark smudges under his eyes. It looked like he hadn't slept the night, amongst other things that could've happened to him that Charlie didn't know about. She was just so glad that he was _alive _and that she couldn't see any major injuries on him_._

"Charlie, what are you-" Dean's words died abruptly the moment he caught sight of the figure standing behind her.

"I brought you a present?" she said, and started gently pushing Dean backwards so he could clear the doorway for her and Castiel to enter the bunker. "Come on, we wanna enter. The reunion can happen indoors."

Dean went with her pushing well enough although his eyes hadn't left Castiel's. When all of them were indoors and the door shut and locked, and the two men still hadn't done anything but stare mutely at each other, Charlie sighed mentally. Men. Really.

"Okay, I'm tired from not getting much sleep last night and then driving all the way here, so I'm going to go find a room to crash!" she announced. As she brushed past Dean, she discreetly elbowed him and murmured, "Don't just stare at him, idiot."

Charlie descended the stairs, hearing Dean take a tentative step forward towards Castiel.

"Cas…"

"Dean."

"You're…"

"Human. Yes, I… Dean, I'm… _I'm human._"

She couldn't help but glance back at the wrecked tone of Castiel's voice, despite having told herself to give the two of them some privacy for their reunion. She was in time to see Dean pulling Castiel into an embrace. Castiel was trembling, he was sobbing silently into Dean's shoulder, his hands gripping Dean's shirt tightly.

Charlie had thought that Castiel appeared to be holding up remarkably well for watching all of Heaven fall the night before. It wasn't the case. Castiel had merely been suppressing his feelings, hiding his vulnerability to the best of his ability all that time. Until now. Until he was before Dean and was finally feeling safe enough to let go.

She felt tears spring to her eyes as she watched Castiel sob and Dean holding on to him for dear life. Then before she could start sniffling herself, Charlie turned away and quickly, but quietly, made her way towards the hallways to find herself an empty bedroom like she'd said she would. This moment was private, and she wasn't about to intrude any further.

She'd brought the fallen angel back to his hunter and it was time they both had the chance to mend.

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**I've always wanted Charlie and Castiel to meet, and enjoy fics that make it happen. Then S08E23 happened, and I worked it in. It's also now my headcanon that Chuck uploaded all his unpublished chapters (because what would eventually become the "Winchester Gospel" had to be complete and be found, yes?) to be found by someone who could crack the code. Who better than Charlie to do it? Also hoping that Charlie turned out okay because my pop culture knowledge is, unfortunately, way below her level.**

**Hope you enjoyed this!**

_**carzla**_


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